Upon returning to Hogwarts, she found Albus in his office in a rage unlike anything she had ever seen in her life.
"Minerva, where the devil have you been when you are needed here?" the Headmaster shouted at his deputy, and the scalp showing through the sparse white strands of his hair turned red. "Something is happening to the castle. Could some ancient protection have activated, or is Tom trying to get in uninvited?"
Minerva turned pale, placed the envelope among the others on her desk with a trembling hand, and, without taking her eyes off her mentor, rushed to calm him:
"That cannot be, Albus. After all, Vvv... You-Know-Who has been dead for more than ten years, hasn't he? You yourself assured us of that. This is something else. What exactly has happened to the castle?"
"I cannot find certain artifacts. I open the boxes, and they are empty. Follow me. You will see for yourself."
Two hours later, when everything he could show Minerva without creating problems for himself had been shown, and it had finally been decided that what had disappeared was not such a great loss to Albus if he himself could not use it for his own benefit, the Headmaster invited the witch to have some tea with him. At the same time, he wanted to hear what was new with the first-years.
"What?" he leapt from his seat upon hearing the news that the residents of Privet Drive were absent, together with the Hero of the magical world. "That is impossible. I strictly forbade Petunia from leaving the house while Harry was with them. How could she disobey me?"
Minerva could not believe her ears when she heard that.
"Aaaalbus? What are you saying? How can you forbid other people from doing what they want? You are joking. You are joking, aren't you?"
Under her condemning gaze, the old wizard shook himself and somehow became completely different, the way she knew and respected him—a kind, aging friend.
"But, Minerva, that is not what I meant to say. Petunia was merely supposed to notify me that she was leaving with her nephew. As you know, as his magical guardian, I care about the boy's fate. We have discussed more than once that because of the Death Eaters who escaped trial, it is unsafe for Harry to show himself in public."
Then he drank tea from a tall porcelain cup, sank back into his chair, and closed his eyes. From the outside, it might have seemed that he had fallen asleep, but he was thinking furiously. There was some detail he was overlooking, but what was it...
He decided that it would be a good idea to Apparate to Privet Drive himself and conduct his own investigation. Without delay, he rose from the chair and summoned Fawkes to him. The phoenix wrapped his master in soft veils of red-and-gold plumage, and the two of them vanished from the Headmaster's office in an instant, leaving behind a somewhat envious Minerva.
Albus returned ten minutes later in a cloud of feathers from the chirping Fawkes, swearing like the devil.
Minerva, who did not want to see her mentor like this, rushed toward the exit and cowardly fled, leaving him alone with his problems.
Albus Dumbledore had been unable to crack the ancestral protection on the Potter family artifacts he had pocketed from Godric's Hollow, and this offended and infuriated him beyond measure. Here he was, the eldest son of a pure-blood but utterly ordinary wizard and a Muggle-born witch, who had managed to drive the entire Wizarding world of Britain into..., into bloody, hmm..., taking all the important positions for himself. Who had managed to turn the history of Europe upside down—er, not personally, but through his lov..., friend—whom he later defeated by deception in a staged battle, though only two people knew that, the victor and the defeated, and became the owner of the Elder Wand... Who, with that Elder Wand, had cast a spiderweb of vows over the most magically powerful families, some of them slave-like, and drained their power for himself, and with power came clarity of mind, health, rejuvenation, vigor...
And here were these impenetrable, unyielding offspring of Ancient Noble Families, who received everything, everything on a platter with a wave of the hand... And they did not share it with their master. Certain family spells, enchantments, and prohibitions would not allow him to touch their ancestral knowledge. Enough to die of rage and never rise again!
Only the Deluminator had yielded to Albus's persistence and, after a fashion, had begun to work. But the Invisibility Cloak yielded to neither charms, nor curses, nor potions, nor fire, nor Muggle chemistry.
The goblins had, firmly and once again, refused to allow him, the Supreme Mugwump of the Wizengamot, into the main Potter vault, and Albus needed that family's Grimoire so badly!
Suddenly, he remembered where he was and took two small glass jars from the pocket of his enormous fuchsia-colored silk robes, placing them on the tabletop. With a wave of his wand, he enlarged them, and inside one of them swirled a dark substance, visible through the spectacles fitted with aura-viewing half-lenses. It was released from its glass prison when the wide sleeve of his robe accidentally knocked the jar to the floor.
"Nooo!" the Headmaster cried in despair and reluctantly began inhaling the dark shreds of mist that enveloped him and returned his most terrible memories to him.
"Ariana, go back! Do not interfere in the affairs of men!" his younger brother Aberforth shouts.
"What men, Abi? They were kissing! I saw them," his sister weeps, and with predatory fingers tipped by long, magically lengthened claws, she leaves long bloody marks across her elder brother's young face, continuing to scream, "Albus, you bastard, have you no shame? Disgraceful! Sodomite, thief! Thief! Thief!"
Hogsmeade greeted them with rain and mud.
Harry grabbed his fiancée with one hand, while with the other he lit the path ahead with Lumos at the tip of his wand. Dudley wanted to go with his relatives, but Hagrid directed the first-years toward the boats.
Among the eleven-year-olds, Dudley Frederick looked like the Groundskeeper among grown men—tall, overgrown, and out of place.
The Sorting Hat sent him to Gryffindor, and with the feline gait of a heavy young lion, he strode toward Harry and Hermione, who watched his approach with blazing eyes. With one movement, the new Gryffindor shoved Ronald Weasley, who was sitting pressed close to his cousin's fiancée, aside and muttered:
"Where do you think you're going, freckles?" Then he sat in his place, looking down at the dumbfounded face of the last remaining member, for now, of the Golden Trio.
Dudley knew something that the red-haired goose had no idea about yet, but would soon learn—that this year, the Golden Trio would be appearing with a new lineup. A family lineup, to tell the truth.
The Headmaster of the school, seated upon his throne in the middle of the staff table, stared with round eyes behind his half-moon spectacles and could not believe what they were seeing—the umbilical cord that had tied his tame hero to him had vanished, vanished completely. The bushy-haired know-it-all had no umbilical cord visible either. And how had Potter's fat cousin managed to enter Hogwarts as well? He had personally made certain to close the boy's magical channels and bind his magical core with constricting hoops, just as he had once done with his mother.
His old heart skipped a beat at the thought that this school year would not be an easy one.
Albus Dumbledore, defeater of Grindelwald and holder of the Order of Merlin, First Class, crossed his fingers beneath the table in the Muggle fashion, so that the wood goblin would not overhear his fears.
"Dud, Dud, wake up! Please, wake up!" Harry shook his cousin, his huge green eyes widened with anxiety. "Hermione isn't in her room. The girls said she was gone all night."
The fair-haired Dudley Frederick immediately sprang up, and his drowsiness vanished as though he had already done his morning exercises.
"Why didn't they tell you last night? Why did they keep quiet? Why didn't they call the Head of House?" he began thinking aloud.
"They said they assumed Hermione was walking around the castle with me. It never occurred to them to look for me in the boys' dormitory."
"And you?"
"I went to bed and passed out."
__
[Please leave a few reviews and Power Stones]
The work on patreon is now complete.
If you enjoy my work, you can Support me at:
[email protected]/cw/Phoenixfic